ROY&T was, in fact, the source of the first three roses we ever bought, 20+ years ago.

Are their roses still grown grafted on Dr. Huey Rootstock?

Jeri

I didn't ask. The bareroots they have in winter are ordered in from somewhere else. When I came to see them, the bareroot season was over and they had a very small selection of potted roses. I looked at Baronne Prevost and Baron Girod de l'Ain - they looked just like small bands and I assumed they were rooted cuttings.
I actually thought they were more of a vendor than a grower, and I didn't occur to me that the did any budding.
Masha

Well, they may not, now.

In its inception, this was Francis E. Lester's nursery. So, really, this is a very important part of U.S. Rose history.

Lester -- well, there's A LOT to say about him -- but one thing he did early on was "rustle" the old cemeteries and gardens of the Gold Rush country for surviving roses. Eventually, he opened his nursery, and when I ordered my first roses, ROY&T was almost the ONLY Old Rose nursery.

Of course, by then, Lester was long-gone, as were his immediate successors in the business.
The present owners descend from them.

Anyhow, I think that perhaps Lester propagated Bare Root.
But the later owners switched to having their roses budded and grown by a contact grower, in Wasco. So the times I visited there, no propagation was done on the premises. And that was the practice until they closed, several years back.

It would be interesting to know who is propagating for them, these days.

Jeri

The first time I ever heard of "old roses" was when my boss at the time brought in a catalog to show to me - it was from Tillotson's, as I believe it was called then. I was fascinated, so then my boss brought in a couple of blooms from his garden - one was Konigen von Danemark, and I think the other one was Reine Victoria. I fell in love right there and then (with Old Roses, not with my boss), though it was to be many, many years before I had any roses of my own. I think that later the nursery became Roses of Yesterday and Today. I didn't realize that they were still around - how nice to know that.

Yes!

Will Tillotson became Lester's partner, and took over after Lester died.
(I think it was "Lester's Gardens" first.)
I gather that Tillotson was one of those "larger than life" characters who you find here and there, in rose history.

Following Tillotson's sudden death, The nursery passed to the hands of Dorothy Stemler ("Honorable Secretary" in Tillotson's catalogs), and after her, to her daughter, Patricia Stemler Wiley.

The current owners are Pat Wiley's children.

The early ROY&T catalogs are TRULY treasures worth owning.

Jeri

This was the vendor from whom I ordered my first old roses, and I believe it was from Dorothy Stemler. I remember my first order included Mutabilis and Sunny June. I continued to order from Pat Wiley and for a long time kept all their catalogs. It wasn't until I got my first laptop that I discovered on-line roses and by that time this firm had changed and if memory serves when Pat retired the business had changed in some way and I no longer ordered from them. This post really brought back fond memories. I was so incredibly excited about the old roses when I first discovered them. In some way it was like coming home because I never felt any affinity with the modern roses and instantly identified with the old ones.

Ingrid

I particularly like their payment system - you take the roses you want and leave your cash or check in a box, what they call the "honor system". I have never ever seen a business run this way, and it made me feel, well, honored to be their customer. In fact, when I went there and picked out two roses, I left my check in the wrong box because there was no one there to tell me what to do :-). They found it two months later just as I was about to call them and ask why it never cleared.

Masha

I got my first antiques from them in 1982. A few hybrid musks and some bourbons. I still have my Felecia from that time and it is nearly thornless. Is that normal for Felecia? I kept all my catalogs because I liked the descriptions and testimonials.

I was so incredibly excited about the old roses when I first discovered them. In some way it was like coming home because I never felt any affinity with the modern roses and instantly identified with the old ones.

*** I had the same experience.
Isn't that wonderful?

Jeri

A reprint of the 1957 catalog is available for $3 from Heritage Rose Foundation - a great bargain -
Anita

Here is a link that might be useful: Roses of Yesterday and Today Catalog

I'm pretty sure that the roses are grafted on Dr. Huey and come from Arena. It is an interesting place to visit and the people are really nice. The reprints from the old catalog are fun and informative to read. We found a VHS tape showing roses in the garden with a musical accompanient that we enjoy.

Speaking of "Roses of Yesterday and Today", I have a rose mystery that I think started with RoY&T in the 1970s. My father-in-law ordered several "old" roses from them, and planted them in what is now our front yard. I remember at the time him grumbling that one of them was not the correct rose. It is still there - it is a VERY upright bright yellow rose, semidouble medium to large flowers. Growing in partial shade, it gets very tall, & reblooms all summer. It may be a HT, I don't know, but it does NOT look like any sort of old rose (all of the rest of the ones he ordered & planted at the same time are teas). Anyway, I always keep roses if they are blooming, so it is still there. What has peaked my curiosity is that last Spring I was visiting the Berkeley Rose Garden, which is a small park in Berkeley which is full of old and modern roses - it appears as if the roses were planted quite a while ago, but is very well tended. Well, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but the exact same tall bright yellow rose that I have in my front yard, labelled "Lady Hillington"! It is obviously NOT Lady Hillington, but I am wondering if RoY&T was shipping this rose out under that name in the 1970s in error? There's a rose mystery for you! Does anyone who was paying attention to old roses then =, or is familiar with the Berkeley Rose Garden, have any ideas about this? Jackie

I have a small collection of a half dozen of their catalogs from the 1950's-1970's given to me by a friend. I treasure them. Back in the early 1970's when I first fell in love with the idea of old roses back in Pennsyvania, my father and I ordered several old roses from them. They were the only game in town in those days. Most of those roses have long since died. Then came the busyness starting to work, marrying, and starting a family of my own. I set aside gardening except for a small vegetable patch some years. Eventually I moved to California myself and my interest in old roses came back. Since I prefer own root roses I buy from other sources now, but I did make a pilgrimage to see RoYaT. It is a lovely place and the people are nice. I'm glad they are still in business.

If it were not for Will Tillotson and people like him, we might not have many of the old roses we have today.

Rosefolly

My only previous exposure to Will Tillotson is through an essay by Katharine White, long time editor of the New Yorker magazine and Maine gardener in the 50's and beyond. She did a yearly column on garden catalogs and reviewed Roses of Yesterday and Today in a column dated March 1, 1958. The essays are collected in a book called Onward and Upward in the Garden.

It seems Mr. Tillotson carried roses that he liked, mainly old fashioned roses, but also moderns, if he liked them. When he stopped liking them, they disappeared from the pages of his catalog.

The two catalogs Mrs. White had were lent to her from "a friend who owns a beauty parlor, and I must not keep them long, because though she has never bought a Tillotson rose, she reads Tillotson every night before she goes to sleep."

His catalog prose was interspersed with poetry and bits of wisdom and with rose advice taken, Mrs. White says, mainly from Dean Hole. She says he died in England collecting roses for his nursery.

In the 1958 catalog Mr. Tillotson's sign off is reprinted from the 1955 catalog, "Oh, gentle reader, forgive me if you are 'sleepy' or bored or annoyed. The tired catalog writer has emptied his 'sack of adjectives' at your feet." She goes on to say that "he is a writer gardeners will miss."

As one who would have been happy to nod off to sleep while reading such a catalog and dreaming of spring, I am glad to hear the business is still in existence.

Thank you for the thread.

I'm pretty sure that the roses are grafted on Dr. Huey and come from Arena.

*** Unhhh . . . Arena Roses shut down a few years back.
Syl is a busy commercial photographer these days, living in Paso Robles, and planning some interesting rose photo seminars.

Jeri

Back in the fifties, Will Tillotson's Roses of Yesterday and Today and Joseph Kern's Nursery were about the only 2 places in the USA which offered old roses. I was in college then and still have the 2 or 3 catalogs I ordered from them. The only rose that survived through the years from Tillotson's was R. Damascena Bifera which was still growing at the old house when we sold it in 1996.

"Honorable Secretary"(Dorothy Stemler) use to type all correspondence on light tan (think of paper dipped in tea)paper and used a brown ink typewriter ribbon. I thought it looked so classy that I went out and bought a brown ribbon for my typewriter!

I saved those catalogs and consider them jewels. Will Tillotson was the "catalog writer" and in my opinion, his description of the roses has never been equaled; sheer poetry. Looking at them more recently with more jaded, cynical eyes (after all, I am living through present day marketing), I can see that a 'positive' approach was definitely there but who today would describe GEORGE ARENDS as "that 'wondrous story book pink'...". The catalogs he wrote are full of such evocative phrases. I felt and stll feel the loss when he died so suddenly. As Jeri said, he was truly an original and the rose world was richer for him.

Another feature of the old catalog is that he included throughout the catalog, quotes from customers describing their roses. An example of one describing CLIMBING CECILE BRUNNER, "A fairy-like, most delightful rose which seems to have fallen out of a drawing by Kate Greenawaym." G. S. Fletcher.

And so forth and so forth; this brings back pleasant memories. I had forgotten about the beige paper and brown ink ribbon.

Jim

Like others I too purchased my first old roses from ROY&T--in the late 70's. Then I discovered that many of the old Kern varieties were available thru Ernest Vash (Historical Roses) in Painesville, Ohio & I started to order thru him. I don't recall ever speaking to him on the phone but we exchanged letters and I wish I had them now. Still, I have my old ROY&T catalogues. I've been re-reading them, as in the old days I had to bypass anything with the curly leaf which meant "tender" and now of course I can grow them! We often seem to speculate about vendors on the forums when in fact, we could send a personal note or e-mail. It's revealing, as I learned when I asked one of my favorite vendors if any of their older floribundas or HT's were virus-indexed. To put it mildly, the response was negative!

Jaqueline
I visit the Berkeley rose garden several times a year,( I live in Emeryville, next door to Berkeley) and though I search for Tea roses haven't seen Lady Hillingdon there yet, but I'd love to visit her.

do you remember if Lady H. was growing in a bed
-on one of the lower tiers below the long rose arbour,
-near the tennis court
-or in the upper garden where there are mostly H.T.s and Florries.

thanks Luxrosa

WOW---what a surprise to see this post----It brings back a lot of memories.
I remember pouring over the old catalogs----Now I have to get busy and go through my boxes of old rose catalogs----I'm sure I must have saved them from way back when I first started growing roses.

Thanks for the memories.

Florence

Florence, I wish I had the memories! In the meantime, I ordered the catalog Anita mentioned. There was only one catalog published in 1957-58, so what the HRF sells is the one I read about.

Looking forward to getting it!